MATCHDAY! Finally . . .

By: Chris | January 30th, 2009

Yep, the Rückrunde (that’s the spring season/second half to you non-German speakers, you know, like myself) gets underway today with one of the marquee fixtures in all of football this weekend. Die Rothosen take on the Munich Machine at the ‘Bank.

HSV come in to tonight’s match following a pretty convincing win (3:1) over the other Munich side (that’d be 1860) on Tuesday with a hat trick from Munich bound Ivica Olic. Meanwhile, the Bavarians are flying high themselves following a 5:1 demolition of VfB, in a match that wasn’t that close.

When these 2 sides last met waaaaaaay back in August, Bayern had been struggling, had a number of injuries (of particular note were Toni and Ribery) and were playing their first Bundesliga match under Jurgen Klinsmann. Fast forward 5 months and it’s smooth sailing for Bayern, who are presently second in the 1. Bundesliga table on 35 points, have advanced to quarter finals of the DFB-Pokal, and made it through to the knockout stages of the Champions League. There’s plenty of talk of a treble in Munich these days, but I don’t see anybody knocking Barcelona off in the CL (or United for that matter. But I digress. . .).

Contrast that with HSV, who, at the time: Had plenty of their own missing men (via injury and transfer, notably VDV and a pouty Kompany, who was just returned from the Olympics); were playing their first B’liga match under Jol; and had yet to sign now-leading-scorer Petric. The match ended 2:2 with Hamburg having fought back from a 0:2 deficit with goals by Guerrero and Trochowski (PK). It was a great result for a short handed Hamburg, and one we will be very fortunate to repeat tonight versus a fully-manned Bayern.

Because Olic is suspended for tonight’s match, Paolo Guerrero looks to start up front. Jan opined in a comment on the last post that BMJ prefers to have Guy Demel start at right back over Jerome Boateng (due to the former’s offensive potential), and maybe due to his history of playing against Ribery. I would like to see Marcell Jansen move to left back and replace Dennis Aogo (who was Atouba-esque, circa 2007/08, against 1860), pair new guy Marcel Ndjengs with David Jarolim in the DM,a nd put Hamburg Offside fave Jonathon Pitroipa with Piotr Trochowski on the wings. The good news is that we do now have Petric up front.

Bottom line–HSV can’t afford the poor defensive play tonight they showed at times against 1860. I am always the optimist, but we will be fortunate to leave the pitch tonight with a draw. SWAG Prediction: 2-2, with goals from Trochowski and Petric.